Carl Evans talks about fight or flight instinct and a third option our bodies sometimes choose: fearful fight.
When making friends, relational experts recommend using the following five techniques.
Once Marlowe had been released from the hospital and returned to his apartment, Sario did his best to balance checking in on him per Darius' orders and being the "good cop" of the Holt brothers.
It did not seem to matter. Marlowe was irritable every time he saw Sario and cursed him out throughout the entire time Sario spent in his apartment. Yet he always let Sario in himself and never forced Sario to use the key Darius had given him. So, at some level, he did appreciate that Sario was there. It was just that he would probably never admit it, even with a gun pressed to his head. Today he plopped down on the couch and groaned in aggravation when Sario offered him food.
"You look like you're starving yourself," Sario pointed out, refusing to let Marlowe knock away the container of Chinese food he had picked up on the way here. "You have to eat." When there was no reply or sign of Marlowe giving up, Sario added, "The sooner you settle into a stable rhythm, the sooner I'm out of your hair."
Marlowe glared, but he snatched the container and started eating, showing a surprising dexterity with the cheap chopsticks. "I'm only doing this to get rid of you," he muttered in between bites. "You're a fucking menace."
"So I've been told," Sario replied calmly. "But seriously, why don't you eat until I force you?"
Marlowe was suddenly very interested in his food. "It's better that way."
Sario could barely hear the words, but they hit a nerve he had not known he had.
"It makes me less desirable," Marlowe continued, telling it like fact instead of the story of his life. "Starved omegas aren't quite so fun to play with."
Sario felt like someone had sucker punched him and knocked every bit of air from his lungs. "You're talking about your own experience." He did not ask. He did not have to.
Marlowe kept his gaze fixed on the fried rice in the carton he held. "I've been used one too many times." He did not say more, but there was no need. Even the implication, the innuendo, was enough.
Sario had no words, no reply, for that, so he stayed quiet the rest of his time there, cleaning and organizing in silence. According to Darius' orders, Sario had to stay for at least two hours every day, so after cleaning he got out his homework. He stood at the island and wrote notes from his textbooks, going back and highlighting things the professor had stressed in class. When he felt a presence at his shoulder, he looked over to see Marlowe looking over his arm.
"Are you trying to become a lawyer?"
Sario smiled faintly. "That's the goal. My friend Maya and I both applied to Harvard and Yale for legal studies, so we'll see if we get in. If not, I can always go to a smaller school and get my degree there. But yeah, I'm trying to be the first lawyer in Holt family history. Darius says he'll hire me as soon as I'm out of school. That's nice of him, but we'll see."
Marlowe nodded, and he seemed to reevaluate Sario right in that moment. The only problem was that his face gave no indication of whether or not it was a good reevaluation. Without saying anything, he watched Sario work for a few minutes more and then went to his desk and started work of his own.
It was almost peaceful, both of them doing things they had to do while across the apartment from each other. No conversation, no interruptions. It felt…was this what other people called domestic?
Panicking silently, Sario frantically finished his notes, relieved when the clock told him he could leave. He shoved his books back into his backpack and zipped it up. Throwing one strap over his shoulder, he called out, "See you tomorrow." Then he beat it out of Marlowe's apartment, building, and neighborhood as fast as humanly possible for someone without a driver's license. When Darius asked how things went, Sario just said everything was fine, because how did he explain to his much older brother that he was maybe falling for someone who did not want to be fallen for and who also happened to be his brother's employee?
The next morning, when Sario came into class with his breakfast in hand, Maya raised an eyebrow. "You eat breakfast now?"
"I had a stressful night," Sario muttered in reply, sitting down and munching gloomily away at the breakfast burrito his mom had made him.
Maya groaned as she pulled out her textbook and notebook. "You didn't sleep again."
Sario closed his eyes. "Yeah. I think I'm confused or messed up or something."
Maya scoffed. "What makes you say that now?"
Sario cracked open one eye. "What do you mean, 'now'?"
"Just answer the question!"
"Fine." Sario heaved out a sigh. "I am the literal worst at respecting boundaries."
"Meaning?" Maya prompted.
"Meaning, someone essentially told me that they hate being hit on and somehow I go and romanticize falling in love with them!"
Maya whistled under her breath as more students filed into the classroom. "Wow. Yeah, that's pretty bad. Toxic, if you ask me." Then an evil look came into her eye. "Who is this mystery someone?"
Sario raised an eyebrow at her this time. "I thought you just said it was toxic."
"I said it was toxic, not that I wasn't invested." Maya propped her elbows on the table and her chin on her hands. "Come on, spill."
Sario rolled his eyes. "Sometimes I wonder how I got stuck with you being my best friend."
"Universally decided karma," she replied without even blinking. "You annoy others, so you need someone who'll annoy you. Now spill it."
Sario finished the last bite of his breakfast, wiped his hands, and pulled out his own textbook and notebook. "I'll tell you after class," he replied as the professor came in and greeted the class. He did not, in fact, tell Maya after class, having thought much better of spilling all the lore to her, and did his best to ignore her as she hounded him all day.
It did not help that they literally had every single class together so she could bother him at her convenience. And bother him she did.
Until he finally cracked while they were working on the order of their presentation. "Holy hell, I'll tell you," he said when she threatened to delete the entire slideshow unless he spilled.
Maya grinned and got comfy in her chair. "Awesome."
Sario rubbed at his eyes, feeling exhausted. "There's this guy."
"Oooooh."
"Shut up."
Maya giggled. "Never."
Sario exhaled, aggravated, and continued. "It's complicated. He works for my brother, and I think it's safe to say that he has a bad past. Which is why everything I'm thinking and feeling is so toxic."
Maya pursed her lips. "By 'bad past', what do you mean?"
"He said something yesterday about how he intentionally starves himself so he doesn't look desirable so no one will use him."
"Oh, fuck," Maya whispered, looking genuinely shocked.
"I know!" Sario ran his fingers through his curls. "And the worst part is that I have to see him every day because that's what Darius told me to do! I have to be around him and give no indication that I'm interested in whatever hot mess is buried beneath his hoodie because that would be the most effective recipe for disaster ever!"
After a moment of silence, Maya shook her head. "You really do pick the most difficult people to crush on, don't you?"
"This isn't funny!" Sario retorted. "I have to go to his place after this and spend two whole fucking hours there!"
"Forced proximity is a trope," Maya teased.
Sario groaned. "Please, Maya. I'm just trying to survive. And this dude is lethal. I'm like a hundred percent sure he could murder me twenty different ways and never bat an eye. I'm so screwed!"
"Is he an alpha?"
"What?" Sario asked, trying to figure out where that question had come from. "No, he's an omega. What? Do you think I'm some sort of freak?"
Maya just laughed. "Well, if he's not an alpha, he's gonna be screwed, not you."
Sario felt his face go hot. "Maya!" he hissed. "Are you fucking kidding me?"
Maya cackled in delight. "Oh, my god. You should see your face! I wish I had recorded that!"
"Are we going to work on the presentation at all or are you just going to laugh at me for the remainder of our time together?"
Gradually, Maya stopped laughing. "Okay, okay, I'm sorry. How about this: I stop laughing at you, we finish this up, and then you take me to see your pseudo-boyfriend?"
Sario tried to hide his panic by adjusting the margins on a slide. "I usually just take an Uber or the driver takes me there."
"I'll drive you," Maya offered. "I need to meet this guy."
"I'll give you fair warning: this guy will not like you. He'll probably hate me for bringing a visitor." Yeah, that sounded like Marlowe through and through.
Maya shrugged. "Just tell him I'm your assignment partner and we'll work on this more over there. It's a great cover story, don't you think?"
"Whatever you say," Sario replied. He had zero faith in her plan, but then again, nothing Maya planned had ever gone sideways in the past. That was his only hope of survival when he knocked on Marlowe's door and was confronted with a pair of very dangerous eyes. "Hey," he began, hating how his voice wavered, "I brought a guest because we have a project that's due in a couple days." When Marlowe did not stop glaring, Sario added, "This is my friend Maya who I was telling you about yesterday."
"Aw, you talk about me?" Maya punched Sario's shoulder. "That's kinda sweet." She stuck out her hand to Marlowe. "I'm Maya Matthews. If you'd like, you can call me Eminem. I've got enough sass to match any rapper."
To Sario's everlasting surprise, Marlowe actually smiled and opened the door wide enough for both of them to come in. He even shook Maya's hand and said quietly, "Nice to meet you."
Sario stared, wide-eyed and slack-jawed. Where was the biting person Sario had been getting used to? And who was this creature of kindness who had replaced him?
Marlowe chuckled, actually chuckled, at Sario's expression and snatched the bag of takeout food from Sario's hand. "I assume the container labelled with my name is mine?" Without even waiting for an answer, he grabbed the aforementioned container and sat down to eat on the couch. And when Maya hesitated, he waved her over to sit beside him. What the hell?
Sario carefully grabbed his own food and joined them, surprised when Maya slid over and Marlowe let him take the adjoining cushion. "So? How has your day been?" he asked, simply to ease the awkward atmosphere.
Marlowe shrugged. "Nothing super interesting." He did not elaborate, so he could have hacked the FBI today for all Sario knew. "Classes went good today?" he asked in return. That was the most interest he had ever shown in Sario's life.
Sario nearly choked but managed to answer, "Yeah, about as well as they can when midterms are just around the corner."
Maya nodded in agreement. "Yup. We've got like three presentations and four actual exams and I'm gonna die."
Marlowe's lips curved into a wry smile. "Don't die. I think Sario needs you as his emotional support human."
Sario's jaw dropped. "Hey!" he protested. "What the fuck was that for?"
Marlowe shrugged again, in a better mood than Sario had ever seen. "Annoying me every day?" he suggested. "Or maybe I just felt like it."
Sario glared at Maya. "What have you done to him?" he asked in a stage whisper that sent both Maya and Marlowe into a fit of laughter at his expense. He sulkily shoved food into his mouth. "Yeah, haha. Laugh away, you psychos," he mumbled, attempting and likely failing to hide his anger and embarrassment. This was horrible. What had he let Maya talk him into?